Cruise Cabin Upgrade Bidding: How We Saved Over $5,000 #princess
We won a cruise cabin upgrade with the minimum bid—and paid $5,204 less for our suite than booking it from the start. But did we make a smart bid, or did we simply get lucky? Barb and I were booked in a Sanctuary Mini-Suite for our 15-day Sun Princess transatlantic cruise from Barcelona to Fort Lauderdale when Princess invited us to bid on an upgrade. We love the suite life, but the original Signature Suite price stopped us dead in our tracks! In this video, I share our exact costs, how we decided what to bid, and the risks you should consider before submitting a cruise cabin upgrade offer. Although our experience was with Princess Upgrade, the questions we worked through can help you evaluate an upgrade on your own cruise line. Sanctuary Benefits video link: https://youtu.be/sL4FfhgWx5k?si=52UVsmhfVGcWm8d8 Chapters: 0:00 Intro 0:52 Our cruise, Sun Princess, transatlantic 1:26 Cost of a Signature Suite 1:45 Cost of a Sanctuary mini-suite 2:35 Princess upgrade procedure 3:00 We got our upgrade email 3:15 Upgrade bidding process explained 3:35 The psychological trick 3:55 The upgrade bid range 4:37 Building a bidding strategy 5:26 PlusGrade 5:52 How your bid is evaluated 6:08 The hidden X-factor 6:56 How much you should bid 8:44 Our exact bidding numbers 9:12 Our $5,000 savings 9:30 The risks of bidding for an upgrade 11:26 The smartest bid OUR ACTUAL COSTS — TOTAL FOR TWO: • Signature Suite if booked from the start: $16,870 • Our Sanctuary Mini-Suite: $8,056 • Accepted upgrade bid: $3,610 • Final cost for our Signature Suite: $11,666 • Difference compared with booking the suite originally: $5,204 We’ll walk through: • How we chose our maximum bid • Why we stayed with the minimum offer • The bidding slider and the temptation to spend more • Which suite benefits held real value for us • Cabin location, payment, and other upgrade considerations • Why a larger cabin isn’t always a better cabin Our savings compare the original suite booking price with our mini-suite fare plus the accepted upgrade charge. Upgrade rules and benefits vary by cruise line, so check the terms of your own offer before bidding. Have you ever bid on a cruise cabin upgrade? Tell us which cruise line, whether your bid was accepted, and whether you felt the upgrade was worth it! Subscribe to The Weathered Wanderer for our upcoming Sun Princess ship tour, Signature Suite room tour, and our post-cruise verdict: Was Our Suite Upgrade Actually Worth It? The Weathered Wanderer — your passport to timeless travels. #CruiseTips #CruiseUpgrade #PrincessCruises